YOUNG THINGS 



ONE of the dominant notes of Spring is youthfulness. 

 It is the season of young things of seedlings, 

 buds, and young blossom, of tadpoles, nestlings, and 

 young lambs. It is the time of new beginnings, of hopes 

 and promises ; in a word, it is the time when all the world 

 is young. Let us consider some of the young things of 

 Spring. 



One of the fundamental but inconspicuous Spring 

 phenomena is the multiplication of minute organisms in 

 the waters. They swarm with water-babies. Sometimes 

 the whole surface of the lake is green with minute plants, 

 and we speak of " the breaking of the meres/' The same 

 is true of pond and river, of estuary and sea, though it 

 must be remembered that in the great expanses of open 

 sea the pelagic realm the conditions of life are much 

 more uniform year in year out than in the shore waters 

 or the lakes. Everywhere the multiplication of minute 

 organisms is the necessary prelude to the general re-popula- 

 tion. A single Infusorian may be the ancestor of a million 

 by the end of a week ; water-fleas eat the Infusorians, 

 fishes eat the water-fleas, and so the basal multiplication 

 influences a long sequence of incarnations. A little one 

 becomes a thousand, and supplies a nutritive stimulus to 

 a long chain. 



Young gnats and mosquitoes are among the many 

 very interesting " water-babies " to be found in stagnant 

 freshwater pools in Spring. The mother insect, who has 



